Twisted Metal Head On Upgrades

Roadkill
Handling: 5/10
Armor: 4/10 (100, 115)
Special Weapon: 6/10
Speed: 6/10
Boundary Damage – 29 points
Special - (Boomerang, 15 points normal, 30 points with a return shot) 
Fires a boomerang at an enemy, with low homing ability. Hitting the 
fire button after firing a boomerang will cause it to return to 
Roadkill. If you fire it with no target present, the boomerang will 
only go straight ahead. Unlike TM2, you must hit the fire button to 
manually return the boomerang. You lose the ability to return the 
boomerang if it goes away from your car too far.
Upgraded – (Charged, 27-35 points normal based on range, 31-35 points 
after the 3 light blinking charge delay, 30-62 on a return shot)
Fires up to six boomerangs, all home in on the enemy much better than 
the regular version IMO. They deal decent damage, even better if you 
get all 6 to hit an enemy on their way back. It is the most powerful 
special by itself, but other characters have more powerful.

Shadow
Handling: 5/10
Armor: 4/10 (110, 127)
Special Weapon: 8/10
Speed: 6/10
Boundary Damage – 28 points
Special – (Soul Shadow, 12-16 points)
The special is weak, contrary to what the special stat says. However, 
it does have a useful ability to pass through walls, whether you 
detonate it or not. When you detonate it the explosion also goes 
through walls, and the area of effect is somewhat similar to a Napalm. 
Fortunately, unlike TM2 you can’t hurt yourself with this. It is faster 
compared to TM2’s Soul Shadow but it’s slower compared to TMB’s. The 
damage depends highly on how close the enemy is within the purple 
circle before detonation. It disorientates the enemy, and flips them 
over if they were moving prior to that, allowing for some punishment 
afterwards.
Upgraded – (Charge, 27-29 points, 27 on a full charge and 29 after the 
three light blinking charge delay)
While the special does more damage, the damage varies based on the 
distance the enemy is from the explosion. Thus, if you’re trying to go 
for the full 29 points you must detonate when the enemy is near the 
center of the Soul Shadow. However the 2 point difference isn’t really 
worth it.

Mr Grimm
Handling: 10/10
Armor: 2/10 (85, 97)
Special Weapon: 10/10
Speed: 8/10
Boundary Damage – 21 points
Special – (Screaming Soul, 25 points)
Fires three skulls ahead at an enemy. A direct hit not only causes 
damage, it also bounces them up a bit. However, this was slowed down 
from TMHO PSP; given that the special has a delay, you can no longer 
fire two in a row for 50 points of damage. BUT it gives you a chance of 
making your shot more accurate in case your enemy is moving and you’re 
trying to adjust the shot to hit where they’re going. Another change 
from TMHO PSP is that the special is now red even when not upgraded 
(just a minor graphical difference). Also, if you switch before the 
special is fired, it will cancel the special from being fired. But 
since you can switch it to another weapon instantaneously after firing 
it, you can immediately fire another weapon to increase the damage of 
this special.
Upgraded – (Mash, fires missiles with small homing ability, 3 points 
per missile, I got 43 points as max so far)
Until the Screaming Soul hits something (be it a wall, obstacle or 
enemy), you can continue to fire missiles at the enemy. It’s best to 
utilize the special by freezing an enemy, backing up so that you have a 
large gap between you and your enemy, then fire and mash like crazy. If 
you’re upclose, the special will hit and you won’t be able to get even 
1 missile to hit (whereas in TMHO PSP, if you mash the fire button fast 
enough a missile will come out right after firing the screaming soul, 
thus letting you get 28 points even if you’re right next to an enemy). 

Sweet Tooth
Handling: 2/10
Armor: 8/10 (125, 144)
Special Weapon: 6/10
Speed: 2/10
Boundary Damage – 31 points
Special – (Napalm Cone, 18 points)
Fires a cone that homes in onto an enemy. If it hits a wall it’ll 
bounce around, but it loses its homing abilities. Perfect for long 
range combat but not too powerful on its own.
Upgraded – (Charge, 18-30 points, fires up to 6 cones, each doing 5 
points of damage)
Fires up to six cones, all home in on the enemy but if an enemy turns 
too much some of the cones may miss. It’s only slightly more powerful 
than a charged Swarmer.

Thumper
Handling: 5/10
Armor: 4/10 (105, 121)
Special Weapon: 8/10
Speed: 6/10
Boundary Damage - 26 points
Special – (Balls of Fire, 4 fireballs, 5 points per fireball, 20 points 
plus fire damage if an enemy doesn’t turbo/shield)
Launches four fireballs at the enemy. A weak special, the homing 
abilities are similar to a freeze missile – good but not great. Plus 
you have to aim all 4 successfully in order to get 20 points of damage.
Special – (Mash, up to 32 points, each fireball is 1 point worth of 
damage)
Thumper’s special is different; it becomes a flamethrower (colored 
green instead of orange like the previous games’ flamethrowers) when 
you fire it but when you mash it also fires fireballs (WOOHOO for 
repetition!). Unlike other mashed specials, even after you 
hit an enemy initially with the “main” special (in this case the 
flamethrower) the mashed projectiles can still continue to be fired 
until the special ends. It’s hard to rack up even 25 points of damage, 
so freezing first may help. Add some machine guns to supplement your 
damage potential.

Spectre
Handling: 10/10
Armor: 2/10 (95, 109)
Special Weapon: 8/10
Speed: 8/10
Boundary Damage – 24 points
Special – (Ghost Missile, 13 points of damage)
Fires a missile that goes through walls until it hits an enemy. It does 
very low damage but it’s a sure hit. An opponent targeted by a ghost 
missile will have a green tripod-thing around their car to indicate 
that they’re being targeted, giving them time to Shield or Flak so only 
use this when you know they won’t have enough energy to avoid it.
Upgraded – (Charge, 23 points on full charge, 27 points after the three 
light blinking charge delay)
The upgraded version is perfect for sniping from a higher area. Again 
it’s better to only fire the special when you know an enemy doesn’t 
have the energy to Flak or Shield.

Twister
Handling: 10/10
Armor: 2/10 (90, 103)
Special Weapon: 8/10
Speed: 10/10
Boundary Damage – 23 points
Special – (Tornado Twist, 18 points of damage)
Twister gets on its front and then spins wildly creating a tornado. Any 
nearby enemies will get dragged into the tornado and spun around until 
the tornado finishes, which tosses them all away. Perfect for throwing 
an enemy “out of bounds” for more damage, even if they activate a 
shield. Don’t use the special near walls; an enemy who hits a wall 
after will fall to the ground immediately and will be immune to the 
rest of the special. The area of effect is rather small, though. If you 
turn, the tornado angles itself in the opposite direction of where 
you’re going (i.e. if you’re driving backward, the tornado angles 
forward) which gives it more range AND even if the special doesn’t hit 
immediately, when you hit an enemy during the end of the special it’ll 
still do 18 pts of dmg. The tornado will throw an enemy into a random 
direction but if you angle it, it’ll throw them into that direction.
Upgraded – (Mash, 31 points of damage)
The same, just mash for extra damage.

Outlaw
Handling: 5/10
Armor: 4/10 (100, 115)
Special Weapon: 6/10
Speed: 8/10
Boundary Damage – 25 points
Special – (Tazer, 4-17 points based on how long the tazer latches onto 
the enemy)
Shocks the nearest enemy with a lightning bolt. It does minor damage 
and you have to run near an enemy in order to ensure the full damage, 
making this one of the weakest specials. However when upgraded, it is 
one of the most powerful specials overall. The Tazer can also pass 
through walls.
Upgraded – (Mash, 4-32 points based on how long the tazer latches onto 
the enemy and how many times you pressed the fire button)
The tazer will now shock enemies repeatedly if you keep tapping the 
fire button, similar to Crazy 8’s from TMB. However what makes this 
better is that it disorientates the enemy (i.e. flips them over or 
causes them to be imbalanced). If you fire your machine guns while 
shocking the enemy, you can do about half damage to every car in the 
game. An excellent improvement over the normal special.

Grasshopper
Handling: 10/10
Armor: 2/10 (94, 108)
Special Weapon: 4/10
Speed: 6/10
Boundary Damage – 24 points
Special – (Body Slam, 18 points)
When selected, an enemy closest to you will have a green circle 
surrounding them, thus warning them of Grasshopper’s special. This is 
also the only way to get Grasshopper to do her special. She jumps into 
the air and then charges at the enemy. If you’re closer, she’ll bounce 
off of them which gives them a possible chance to retaliate so it’s 
better you use it from far away. If no enemy is in sight, Grasshopper 
jumps up to TM2 height, which can be useful to get to certain areas 
without having to use the jump upgrade (especially in multiplayer). The 
special causes the enemy to bounce really high into the air, thus 
setting up for further punishment. If you’re right next to them, the 
special will throw them straight up but you won’t get as much height.
Upgraded – (Mash, 20-32 points, each green ball does 1 point of damage)
After jumping, mash the fire button to fire green balls at the enemy 
(which will always hit), until Grasshopper connects with the special. 
More damage is possible when the special is used far away. When you hit 
fire, even if you don’t mash, two green balls will always be fired thus 
ensuring at least 20 points of damage.

Warthog
Handling: 2/10
Armor: 8/10 (130, 149)
Special Weapon: 6/10
Speed: 4/10
Boundary Damage – 33 points
Special – (Patriot Missiles, 6 per missile, 18 points overall with 3 
missiles)
Fires a trio of homing missiles, red, white and blue. Good overall 
weapon for long range combat, but in comparison to other specials 
Warthog’s doesn’t do too much damage but it’s useful to wear an enemy 
down, really quickly. The missiles are fired separately and congregate 
only when they’re near their target, so keep this in mind if you’re 
going after a single target.
Upgraded – (Charge, 27 damage when charged)
The special is still the same but the missiles do more damage when 
charged, equivalent to a fully charged Swarmer missile. All three 
missiles also become red (minor graphical difference).

Axel (secret character)
Handling: 5/10
Armor: 6/10 (120, 138)
Special Weapon: 6/10
Speed: 4/10
Boundary Damage - 30 points
Special – (Shockwave, 15 points)
Axel releases a burst of energy that crosses the ground, forming a 
circle. Anyone hit by the shockwave will bounce into the air, and if 
they’re driving they’ll even flip over thus setting them up for further 
punishment. Good to hit multiple enemies at once.
Upgraded – (Charge, 27 points)
The same, and a lightning bolt is latched onto an enemy from Axel’s 
vehicle although it doesn’t seem to do any extra damage.

Mr Slamm (secret character)
Handling: 2/10
Armor: 8/10 (135, 155)
Special Weapon: 10/10
Speed: 2/10
Boundary Damage – 34 points
Special - (Bucket Shake Slam, 22 points + 6-12 ramming damage = 28-34 
total)
When selected, all you do is drive your front end into a vehicle and it 
will pick them up, slam them a few times and then throw them away. A 
change from TMHO (and TM2) is that now the enemy that’s getting slammed 
will temporarily have their weapon/energy display disabled. Throw an 
enemy into a wall with your special, then rinse and repeat until you’re 
out of specials. Fire your machine guns to accelerate the process! An 
enemy can only deal with this by putting a shield up after they’re 
thrown away by your special and then remote bombing their way out, so 
when they’re out of energy they might as well be doomed!!! To be fair, 
Slamm’s special will count the opponent ramming him so he’ll take minor 
damage from his special.
Upgraded – (Charge, 22-34 points + 12 ramming damage = 46 total)
No longer automatic, you have to manually fire the special (which 
causes the crane at the front to go forward, increasing its 
range). However, you can get 47 points of damage per freeze (Freeze, 
Ram + fully-charged Special) so that’s still a lot. You can’t spam it 
in the same manner as when it was normal, though.

Crimson Fury (secret character)
Handling: 10/10
Armor: 2/10 (95, 109)
Special Weapon: 8/10
Speed: 8/10
Boundary Damage – 24 points
Special – (Reticle Pulse Blast, 16 points)
A red box appears in front of Crimson Fury; any target in the box will 
have a crosshair on them (a change from TMHO PSP). Once the crosshair 
is shown, it is your cue to hit the fire button to shoot. It launches a 
laser ball at an enemy with minor homing ability (though it sounds 
pretty cool).
Upgraded – (Charged, 25 points)
The charged special fires up to 5 laser balls for five points each. 
You’ll have to aim carefully for all 5 laser balls to hit.

Hammerhead (secret character)
Handling: 2/10
Armor: 6/10 (118, 135)
Special Weapon: 6/10
Speed: 2/10
Boundary Damage – 30 points
Special – (Ram Attack, 15 points)
When selected and near an enemy, the ground becomes highlighted in 
blue. Press fire, and Hammerhead will do a wheelie (i.e. lift the front 
wheels up), jump onto the victim and then bounce off of them. If no 
target is present, Hammerhead just does a wheelie. The initial wheelie 
leaves you pretty wide open since Hammerhead doesn’t leave the ground 
immediately. However once it hits, it disables the enemy’s ability to 
fire until Hammerhead lands back onto the ground, but they can still 
shield it. Also if no target is present, the special will still be in-
tact until you actually hit an enemy. When you land on an enemy, you 
can still turn. If you get behind them during the special, they’ll be 
right in front of you and open to some missiles.
Upgraded – (Mash, up to 26 points)
Once Hammerhead is on an enemy, he will accelerate his wheels (by 
mashing the fire button) and rub it over his enemy’s paint for further 
damage. 

Cousin Eddy (secret character)
Handling: 5/10
Armor: 10/10 (100, 115)
Special Weapon: 10/10
Speed: 8/10
Boundary Damage – 25 points
Special – (Bull’s Rush, not named officially, 25 points)
Cousin Eddy rushes forward and charges straight ahead. Anyone unlucky 
enough to cross his path will get pushed aside. The special flings the 
enemy into the air depending on your distance from them when you 
activate the special. At mid range, it will fling them into the air, 
but at close or long range, it will just push them aside. 25 points is 
quite a lot and if you throw them into the air it sets them up for 
further punishment. You can also use this special as a means of getting 
away from danger in an instant.
Upgraded – (Minion Flamethrower, not named officially, 36 points + fire 
damage)
Remember Minion’s flamethrower from TMB? Well here is the same. Just 
get close to an enemy and fire it off! It does pretty good damage for 
such little effort, but beware that an enemy can freeze you to stop it.
Special Note – Cousin Eddy’s machine gun fires white missiles that home 
in onto an enemy now. A nice improvement from TMHO PSP, where his 
machine gun was lame (it did not home in like boss Cousin Eddy’s and it 
was VERY hard to hit with).

ATV (secret character)
Handling: 10/10
Armor: 1/10 (50, 57)
Special Weapon: 4/10
Speed: 8/10
Boundary Damage – 13 points
Special – (Bullet, not officially named, 16 points)
Fires a few orange-ball shaped bullets. It has no homing ability, and 
it only fires behind ATV so it is a pretty weak weapon overall.
Upgraded – (Dynamite, not officially named, 29 points)
ATV now throws a dynamite at an enemy that follows them and hits for 
good damage. It’s an excellent way to strike enemies from above and 
below you, since the Dynamite arcs up pretty high.

Dark Tooth (Secret character)
Handling: 10/10
Armor: 10/10 (148, 173)
Special Weapon: 10/10
Speed: 10/10
Boundary Damage – 33 points
Special – (Grapple, 20 points + 6-12 ramming damage = 26-32 total)
The mechanical jaws at the front grab an enemy, slam them a few times, 
and then throws them away. Dark Tooth’s special animation has changed; 
at the end, it now lifts an enemy into the air BEFORE tossing them. 
Whereas in TMHO PSP after slamming an enemy Dark Tooth just flings them 
up after. Also there was an occasion where Dark Tooth’s special failed 
to throw an enemy away, it just dropped them right in front of him. 
However it loses its sound effects from TMHO PSP. After throwing an 
enemy away, you can follow-up by firing your machine guns along with 
another weapon for HUGE damage. BTW, the range is HUGE for a close 
range weapon, and the special isn’t named Grapple but I based the name 
off of the Concept Art manual that came with the game. However, the 
special does come with a price; it will count the opponent ramming Dark 
Tooth so he takes damage as well.
Upgraded – (None, 30 points + 12 ramming damage = 42 total)
Dark Tooth’s upgraded special is just more powerful, no need to hit 
anything!
Special Note – Dark Tooth’s machine gun is Sweet Tooth’s special. His 
shield is coated in purple instead of green like the other characters.

Tower Tooth (secret character)
Handling: 10/10
Armor: 10/10 (310, 357)
Special Weapon: 10/10
Speed: 10/10
Special – (Flamethrower, 15-30 points)
Tower Tooth’s special is essentially Cousin Eddy’s upgraded special, 
although it’s not as powerful. It automatically targets the nearest 
enemy, no need to aim. In multiplayer, the flamethrower can be a good 
threat when you combine it with your machine gun fire.
Alternative – (Tower Lightning, no damage listed)
Now this special sucks, compared to TMHO PSP. It no longer fires about 
5-8 extra cones during the special, and it does essentially the same 
damage as a fire missile. It’s not as powerful as TMHO PSP. It’s been 
colored red instead of blue (minor graphical difference) but at half 
health and nearly dead all you can do is fire some lousy lightning 
that’s not even powerful?!?! Ah well. He can now be used in 
multiplayer, a change from TMHO – though once you select him he still 
can only be used in Roman Ruins deathmatch level (why couldn’t they 
make him selectable in Tokyo Streets – Dark Tooth? That’s where his 
boss battle takes place anyway).
Special Note – Tower Tooth’s machine gun is Sweet Tooth’s special just 
like Dark Tooth’s. His shield also covers him with purple energy 
instead of green.


Armor/Health points
-------------------
I think it would be easier to show the health here, as well as compare 
stats. A lot of them are surprising. I tested out the armor points, and 
unfortunately the work is a lot more difficult than I thought. Not only 
did I test with infinite weapons, but I also forgot that it gave you 
the armor upgrade. Not to mention, some of the data is weird! For 
example, Dark Tooth has 148 points as a playable character, with the 
upgrade it increases his health to 173 but the upgrade is supposed to 
make it 170… How odd. So because of my initial testing (and failure to 
take into account the armor upgrade) I will now split up the health 
points. The first number is the health WITHOUT the armor upgrade and 
the second is with the armor upgrade. It has come to me that the AI 
actually has more health than a playable character, but with the armor 
upgrade all regular characters have more health than their AI 
counterparts. The bosses though, will always have the most health (Dark 
Tooth has 200 points as the AI, whereas he only has 148 as a playable 
character). These health stats are all for the playable versions of 
characters, not the AI.

Format:
Character (armor): normal health, health with armor upgrade

Roadkill (4/10): 100, 115
Shadow (4/10): 110, 127
Mr Grimm (2/10): 85, 97
Sweet Tooth (8/10): 125, 144
Thumper (4/10): 105, 121 
Spectre (2/10): 95, 109
Twister (2/10): 93, 103
Outlaw (4/10): 100, 115
Grasshopper (2/10): 94, 108
Warthog (8/10): 130, 149
Axel: (6/10): 120, 138
Mr Slamm (8/10): 135, 155
Crimson Fury (2/10): 95, 109
Hammerhead (6/10): 118, 135
Cousin Eddy (10/10): 100, 115
ATV (1/10): 50, 57
Dark Tooth (10/10): 148, 173
Tower Tooth (10/10): 310, 357 (357 only with the Infinite Weapons code)

The most shocking result of my testing would be Cousin Eddy, whose 
armor stat is listed as 10/10 but he actually has 4/10 armor. Warthog 
and Mr Slamm’s armors are something more like 9/10 rather than 8/10 
especially since outside of Dark Tooth and Tower Tooth, they have the 
highest health out of anyone in the game. Grimm, Spectre, Twister, and 
Grasshopper all have more like 3/10 armor rather than 2/10. Shadow’s 
armor is more like 5/10 rather than 4/10, as 4/10 armored cars 
(Roadkill, Outlaw and Thumper) all have around 100 health as their base 
stat. Again, as mentioned above, Dark Tooth cheats the system by having 
3 more health points with the armor upgrade than intended. The game 
rounds some armor stats up, but some other armor stats on other cars 
are rounded down. I have no idea why this is the case. I only tested 
the armor upgrade for a few characters including Roadkill, Shadow and 
Dark Tooth; the rest of the armor stats are all rounded down after 
calculating the 15% increase. It seems accurate, for the most part.


Boundary Damage
---------------
Although the boundary damage penalty seems consistent with every 
character, there was one case (I think it was on the Tokyo Rooftops 
level) where the Boundary Damage was more than what I listed for 
Crimson Fury. I’m not sure if there’s a special case, or if there are 
any circumstances where going out of bounds in a specific area of the 
level will incur more damage as a penalty. So for now I’m listing all 
the boundary damages mentioned above, but Crimson Fury will be the only 
exception until I can re-confirm this.

Format:
Character: Boundary Damage

Roadkill: 29  
Shadow: 28 
Mr Grimm: 21
Sweet Tooth: 31 
Thumper: 26
Spectre: 24
Twister: 23
Outlaw: 25 
Grasshopper: 24  
Warthog: 33  
Axel: 30
Mr Slamm: 34 
Crimson Fury: 24, 32 in Tokyo Rooftops 
Hammerhead: 30
Cousin Eddy: 25
ATV: 13
Dark Tooth: 33


C. Upgrades
===========
One thing the TMHO PSP manual screwed up on was the upgrade list, it 
did not go in the order specified compared to the game. Thus, in ETE’s 
manual it was fixed. 

Upgrades are powerups gained after destroying a car, they have varying 
effects and are permanent until you are destroyed, in which case you 
lose all upgrades and must start over. When you get an upgrade the next 
one comes available; after all 6 upgrades the 7th upgrade is random. 
Upgrades carry over to the next level giving you a nice advantage. In 
ETE the upgrade icons (yellow green triangles) now have the words UP 
circling it (minor graphical difference).

1st upgrade: Turbo and Energy upgrade
Speeds up Energy regeneration by 10%, turbo now burns slower by 10%, it 
also refills your energy/turbo meters in case you used some of it up.

2nd upgrade: Jump upgrade
Now when you jump, it jumps 2x higher than normal, back to TM2 height. 
Very useful IMO, especially since Jump no longer uses any energy!!!

3rd upgrade: Ram upgrade
Adds 10% more damage to a ramming attack. Much more useful in a higher 
armored car where the effects are more apparent. Average armored cars 
get up to 8 ramming points, higher armored cars get up to 12 ramming 
points, and lower armored cars can get up to 6 ramming points (which is 
odd, but yes, even Grimm can ram Dark Tooth for 6 points of damage).

4th upgrade: Machine Gun upgrade
Your machine guns now fire red bullets instead of white ones, and will 
rapidly whittle down an enemy’s health. Very useful.

5th upgrade: Armor Upgrade
Your armor/health bar increases by 15% so you’ll last longer. Very 
useful. BTW, the upgrade also completely refills your health in case 
you’re running short.

6th upgrade: Special Weapon upgrade
Your special attacks/weapons can now do more damage based on two 
mechanics: charging and mashing. Charging is typically for the 
projectile/long range type specials, and mashing is for the melee-type 
specials though there are some exceptions (Mr Grimm uses the mash 
mechanic even though his special is a projectile, and Mr Slamm uses the 
charge mechanic even though his special is a melee-type special). Some 
characters’ specials become different, and there are a few who don’t 
even need to charge/mash to maximize their damage. Only Tower Tooth 
can’t receive a special weapon upgrade, but he makes up by having two 
specials based on his current health. Charged specials, when fully 
charged, will blink three times warning you to release the special 
before wasting it completely. A change here is that charged weapons can 
now be switched out even when being charged, though there is a second 
delay, and if you hold down the fire button in the process of switching 
weapons you’ll fire the next weapon automatically. It seems to me that 
some Mashed specials were toned down in damage, a bit (although I may 
be a bad button basher).

7th upgrade: Random upgrade
You will either get three extra missiles (Fire, Homing, or Power), a 
15% health regeneration, or a Turbo and Energy refill. To maximize your 
chances of a Turbo and Energy refill or 15% health regeneration get as 
much weapons as possible, or have 30 weapons (the maximum) so that you 
can only get 15% health regeneration or the Turbo and Energy refill.


d. Energy Attacks
=================
All Energy Attacks are based off of their TMB-inputs, save for one that 
was changed from TMHO PSP/TMB. Unlike TM2/TMB, you cannot use energy 
attacks when you fire a weapon (i.e. after firing a homing missile you 
cannot immediately fire a freeze missile) so combining weapons is less 
fluent and authentic.

Freeze Missile (Up Down Up, uses about 40% of the energy bar)
Fires a freeze missile at an enemy. A hit freezes them and thus lets 
you continue with whatever weapon you have in mind. The homing 
abilities are still pretty good but they are not as great as in TMHO 
PSP. Any weapon above 10 points of damage will break the freeze, thus 
to do the most damage, fire your Machine Guns and use a strong weapon – 
preferably a special or power missile. For some reason the D-pad input 
is rather unresponsive compared to the other Energy Attacks; I 
recommend using the left analog stick to input the Freeze (it’s more 
responsive than the D-Pad input but it sometimes fails occasionally). A 
freeze missile does 1 point of damage to an enemy. When you’re frozen, 
rapidly tap a button to break out. Unlike TMB, you can turbo during a 
freeze and it will actually use Turbo from your turbo meter.

Shield (Right Right Down Down, uses about 60% of the energy bar)
Causes green energy to envelope your car thus protecting it from 
weapons. Use it when low on health, trying to escape, or getting to a 
health, but use it wisely since it uses the most energy out of all 
energy attacks. It protects you for about 5 seconds.

Mine (Right Left Down, uses about 10% of the energy bar)
Drops a mine onto the ground. Best used after taking a teleport to 
ensure that an enemy will take the damage, rarely will you ever need to 
drop one into the path of a relentless enemy. A mine hit does 11 points 
of damage, compared to 6 from TMHO PSP. It is interesting to note that 
one of the trailers for TMHO PSP showed a mine doing 22 points of 
damage to Mr Grimm, so perhaps the mine in its previous state was too 
powerful… unless they meant a REMOTE BOMB but it clearly said a MINE 
hit. It also seems to me that you can’t stack mines on top of each 
other (i.e. drop three mines all at once) as opposed to previous TMs.

Cloak (Left Left Down Down, uses about 30% of the energy bar)
Renders your car invisible from sight and even from the radar for about 
5 seconds, however it will leave behind a shadow of the car’s wheels as 
well as a smoke, so if a human player notices the smoke/shadow and 
shoots you it will unveil you so beware. Unlike TMB, ANY weapon fired 
(be it Machine Guns, energy attacks such as Freeze Missiles and etc) 
will uncloak so it’s better that you use this as a getaway option, not 
a surprise attack method. Also, when you use invisibility an enemy 
typically drives away from your location and will not notice you at 
all. This is VERY useful in the deathmatch versions of levels, 
especially since DM maps have fewer healths and most of them have wide 
areas thus making you a big target for anything. Unlike TMB’s cloak, if 
an enemy bumps into you or you run into something heavy that’s moving 
(i.e. traffic cars) you’ll STILL be cloaked. It costs less than a 
Shield and you can use at least three per full energy bar. This should 
be your primary defensive option with the Shield being a last resort.

Flak (Up Down Left Right, uses about 20% of the energy bar)
Causes a radial explosion to burst out of your car. The explosion can 
damage (for 10 points) and knock away enemies BUT it can also destroy 
missiles too. This is basically a less expensive Shield, but only for 
missiles, and you have to time it carefully so that a missile hits the 
explosion before it hits you. If you’re using it offensively, it’s best 
used for cars with melee-type specials, including Grasshopper, 
Hammerhead, Mr Slamm, and Dark Tooth as a means of knocking them away 
so that they can’t corner you and spam their specials.

Rear-Fire (Up Down Down, no energy is consumed)
The only command that’s changed from TMHO PSP. Rear-Fire no longer 
needs you to hit the fire button after inputting the command. 
Surprisingly, the command is actually one Up button short (contrary to 
how it’s shown in the manual), and you can use D-Pad input but it’s 
occasionally unresponsive. I recommend pressing each button hard enough 
for Rear-Fire. It fires the currently selected weapon out of your car, 
however weapons such as Swarmer Missiles can’t be rear-fired. Best used 
with Homing weapons, especially the Homing Missile. There’s also a few 
random combinations that trigger Rear-Fire (one of them was Down Up 
Down I think). Neither seem to be reliable, though.

Napalm (Right Left Up Up+Fire button, uses about 30% of the energy bar)
A Homing Napalm is fired along with your current weapon, it adds 11 
more points of damage as well as doing fire damage and disorientating 
the enemy. However, it does not work with special weapons. The command 
is rather unresponsive, even in TMHO PSP. If you’re going for the kill 
use this, otherwise don’t bother with it. For Swarmer Missiles, charge 
it up, then input the Right Left Up Up command before releasing the 
Fire Button to use Napalm along with it for major damage.

Jump (L1+R1, consumes no energy)
Yay, it doesn’t use energy anymore!!!! Even if it did the difference is 
hardly noticeable. When you get the jump upgrade it’s even better. Be 
wary of Napalms. You can also use Jump as a means of turning really 
fast especially if you’re in a car with poor handling stats.


e. Weapons
==========
The weapons return from TMHO, however three of them received a damage 
boost. Otherwise they are largely the same (but the missiles look like 
fireballs now so they are cooler :]). Each weapon will always give you 
2 per pickup like TM2.

Machine Gun (damage varies, no homing ability, can’t be rear-fired, 
can’t be picked up)
The Machine Gun overheats faster compared to TMHO PSP, but it’s still a 
nice tactical weapon. With the machine gun upgrade this weapons becomes 
more powerful, able to quickly whittle down an enemy’s health. Machine 
Guns are best used when combining with other weapons for extra damage.

Fire Missile (12 points of damage, common, limited homing ability, can 
be rear-fired)
Basic missile; only slightly more damaging than the homing missile but 
typically a “fodder” weapon to waste since there are much better 
weapons to stock up on. You start with two of these. Fire missiles are 
color coded orange with a missile in them. They’ve been slowed down 
from TMHO PSP, equal to TMB’s Fire Missile.

Homing Missile (10 points of damage, common, great homing ability, can 
be rear-fired) 
Homing Missiles are the best overall missile, they only do half the 
damage of a Power Missile but you can fire several of these and cause 
some huge damage really fast. Very useful on speedy vehicles such as 
Grimm. Homing missiles are color coded purple with a missile in them. 
You start with one of these. They’ve been slowed down from TMHO PSP, 
equal to TMB’s Homing Missile.

Power Missile (20 points of damage, uncommon, no homing ability, can be 
rear-fired)
Power Missiles are exactly what they imply - powerful. However in 
TMHOETE they really do feel “powerful” since they produce a knockback 
that’s much more noticeable compared to TMHO PSP or even TMB – very 
TM2-ish. Freeze into Machine Gun and Power Missile is one of the 
easiest damaging combos you can do to an enemy, and if an enemy doesn’t 
run for it or use a shield or Flak you got yourself another power 
missile for up to 41+ points of damage! Power missiles are color coded 
red with a missile in them. They’ve been slowed down from TMHO PSP, 
equal to TMB’s Power Missile.

Napalm (20 points of damage, uncommon, no homing ability, can be rear-
fired)
Napalms have gotten an upgrade from TMHO PSP; they will always do 20 
points of damage regardless of where you drop it next to an enemy. 
However they can now actually hurt you if you drop them too close to 
you so Napalms have to be used more carefully. The area of effect is 
solely inside the target crosshair so the enemy has to be as close to 
the target crosshair as possible in order for the explosion to hurt 
them. Fortunately, Napalms are great for “shooting” people behind 
walls; the explosion will pass through the wall and hit them if they’re 
hugging the wall too much. They’re also great for shooting enemies on 
roofs or some higher area, as well as below. Napalms are color coded 
yellow with a can in them.

Ricochet Disc (10 points of damage in a straight on hit, 30 points on a 
bank shot hit regardless of how many times the disc bounces, rare, no 
homing ability, can be rear-fired)
While ricochet discs are fast (actually faster than TMHO PSP) and the 
knockback is better compared to TMHO PSP there’s still very little 
reason to use them, except in narrow hallways/areas. They only deal as 
much damage as a homing missile and are not too powerful without a 
bounce hit so you might as well fire these away when you pick them up. 
Given that maps are very wide open, it’s hard to get a bank shot. 
However the knockback gives you ample opportunity to shoot the enemy 
with machine guns for more damage and restrict their movement so that 
they’re forced to retaliate instead of getting away. It also sets up 
for freeze and other weapons, which actually gives this weapon bigger 
damage potential. A bank shot will have the disc colored darker orange 
as well as giving an even greater knockback than a dead-on hit. There’s 
only a few cases you can Ricochet someone off into a boundary but even 
so, that’s very hard to achieve. Ricochet Discs are color coded 
lavender with a disc in them.

Remote Bomb (25 points of damage irregardless of distance, rare, no 
homing ability, already rear-fire-able)
Remote Bombs received a bit of a boost; they now do 25 points of 
damage, whether you detonate the bomb and catch them in the explosion 
or an enemy runs into it. They are excellent for teleport traps (i.e. 
dropping a remote onto a teleport pad after getting warped over) when 
interspersed with mines and a little “surprise” with a freeze missile. 
Drive-by bombings are not recommended except on a slower car, and even 
then they usually try to run for it before you can detonate the bomb on 
them. Make sure not to be within the Remote bomb’s explosion area or 
else you get hit too. If you intend to use Remote Bombs offensively, 
make sure to use shields before detonating them, but if an enemy’s low 
on health you can tank the hit if you have more health, if you prefer. 
Remote bombs are color coded green with a dynamite in them. 

Swarmer Missile (4-27 when fully charged, uncommon, great homing 
ability, cannot be rear-fired)
The Swarmer Missile is essentially Roadkill’s special from TMB, only 
not as powerful, but it’s still a powerful weapon on it’s own. You 
charge it up with the fire button, and release after 6 missiles appear. 
You only need the 6 missiles to appear for the maximum 27 points of 
damage; the blinking is only a warning to let you know that you should 
release the weapon before it backfires (i.e. wasted). If you’re aiming 
for a single enemy, make sure to get closer to him/her since all 6 
missiles don’t congregate until they’re about to hit their enemy, thus 
causing some of the missiles to target another enemy. A change from 
TMHO PSP is that even when charging the weapon, you can switch to 
another (though there’s a second delay and if you hold down the fire 
button too long you’ll fire the next weapon, possibly wasting it). 
Swarmer missiles are color coded yellow with a missile pack in them.

Turbo (pickup)
Not a weapon obviously. This completely refills your turbo meter when 
you deplete it. Turbos are color coded light green, so be careful when 
trying to distinguish them from Remote bombs. They look like Nitro Gas 
tanks.

Health (comes in two flavors; Partial and Full)
Well if you’re nearly dying, pick up some healths! Partial ones are 
common and restore 30% of your health, and Full ones are rare (only 1 
except in Monaco where there’s two and they appear in MOST levels save 
for about two or three) but completely restore your health. Health 
regeneration is faster compared to previous TMs, which if anything, 
makes TMHO easy. There are no full healths in the deathmatch maps, and 
there are also no full healths in even the ones that have them when 
playing challenge/endurance mode. Partial ones are white with a red 
cross in the center, and the full ones are simply bigger.


f. Bonus Levels
===============
I’m sure one thing you’ll definitely hate are TMHO’s bonus levels. They 
are necessary to complete in order to unlock extra levels and cars, 
however they can be pretty frustrating and the levels that give them 
are anything but easy. This is a quick guide to the bonus levels. Bonus 
levels are accessed by entering the Mini-game teleporter (the pink 
ones) but some are hidden away in certain levels. After completing a 
bonus level, you’ll obtain whatever weapons you picked up from the 
level as well as a full health recharge. If you complete the bonus 
levels that give you extra levels/cars again then you get a cheat code. 
In most of the bonus levels, if you try to reverse and go back, the 
game will give you a 5-second warning to turn around and keep going or 
else you self-destruct automatically (it’s not really bad since the 
countdown only briefly appears 2 seconds after you turn around). A 
change from TMHO PSP is that the teleporter becomes darkened out and 
still have the white spiral thing, but you can’t replay them. Also, the 
bonus levels now play their respective map’s background music. BTW, 
some minigames reward you with extra lives but I only put it down for 
the ones I remember getting extra lives from.